valiant

A huge electrical storm has just gone over the Uttoxeter area and is heading north. The gutters and grids couldn't handle the rain and it was like midnight. Someone's in for it in the Staffs Moorlands/Derbys Dales area. Electric went off for a bit.

big storm over me now ...

Big thunder here - just got the washing in. Breeze getting up from the south ....

See the other news headline? What's going on? Here am I, with THREE multi-coloured wheelie bins cluttering up my drive and two other bins in my garage, and the Japanese are dumping THEIR garbage on the Moon at 4000 mph.

And that's what it's all about. Not WHAT we are doing ... but that there are 6.6 billion people doing it.

Looks like I'm in the middle of a 4-hr band of very heavy rain. Hope it doesn't stall and start heading back south ..

Talk about measuring rain in a bucket .. it's 10.5C in our GREENHOUSE.

New car carbon footprint = 40,000 miles of petrol consumption carbon footprint (Prion). Scrappage. Another brilliant idea from the same people who tell us we need to cover Britain in windmills. PS. Perhaps we could make the windmills from scrapped cars ...

That's why I always feed the small birds by hanging/placing their food in/under a tree - where they are relatively safe. The hawks can't see 'em. Don't forget the water. I put mine under trees/shrubs and far enough away from next door's hedge ... used as an ambush screen by their resident wildlife murderer - who I refer to as "Cooking Fat".

I think this was the day it snowed and stopped the cricket. My wife's 12th birthday.

And if AGW is to be as devastating over the next couple of hundred years as they say - should we be acting in Cnut fashion to "halt" it .. or adopt an "adapt or die" approach? As proposed here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7888994.stm I'm all for reducing wasteful economic activity (they call it growth (!)) and therefore pollution in general, together with planning for the future. No eco bling for me.

I was 2/3 right Derbys v Lancs June 2nd 1975 .. Buxton.

Quite often there is a snowy spell at the end of February. Once, I was snowed in on Feb 25th ... my missus was in labour, so I remember it well. Often have snowy Easters too. Remember hitting a blizzard on the A55 to North Wales, going on a day out at the sea-side. And finally, I remember the Derbys v Yorks cricket match report at Buxton reading "Snow stopped play".

So are you in Stoke or Brum ??

So it was safer for kids to be indoors ie AT SCHOOL. Has the 16-y-o girl's funeral taken place yet? The one who crashed on her sledge during school time? Sorry to be off topic ... but death IS serious, don't you think.

Just got heavier here and settling.

BIG flakes here - and settling.

BIG flakes here - and settling.

That's the spirit!

I'm tired of the southern biased BBC hype and freeloaders sciving on the public purse. I thought news was based on fact. Today's headlines... Heavy snow has brought a fifth day of chaos to the UK, with severe weather warnings issued to much of the country. Since when was the SE and south Mids "the UK" ?? 5 (?) days of "chaos" ?? "much of" the country ?? I live in a rural village in N Staffs. I've driven 3 hours into Oxfordshire for two days this week past hundreds of closed schools. The school opposite (which must have the highest proportion of parent 4WD's in Britain) has been closed since Wednesday. The kids safety has been compromised by this decision - as they all turned up anyway to make giant snowballs on the adjacent recreation ground ... which they then rolled into the road to cause a car to swerve, out of control, into the verge. No work, no pay .... might just get people to (whisper this) make an effort.

A dusting of snow here - and the radar seems to indicate the leading edge grinding to a halt along a line roughly equating to the A38 between Brum and Derby. Looks like it's on the turn back down south ....

Just because it's unusual, doesn't mean it's exceptional. The "negative" posters are saying it how it is. I got off my backside on Tuesday morning and drove from the frozen north, past several hundred closed schools for a few days in Oxfordshire. I drove around the Chilterns, sightseeing. It's the rampers who should "grow up".

We've had about 35mm in Tean/Checkley area over the last 45 mins .. all drifting west I think.

Check the m'ways on this site - remembering to click on the camera box once you've chosen your m'way. http://www.traffic-england.co.uk/motorwayflow.aspx As for later, for those of you with a nervous disposition, look away now. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/

Just kicked off here again - biggest flakes of the day so far heading Stoke way.